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November 7th, 2012
Election results raise questions about Christian right's influence
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor
Washington (CNN) - For many conservative Christian leaders, it was a nightmare scenario: Barack Obama decisively re-elected. Same-sex marriage adopted by voters in some states. Rigorously anti-abortion candidates defeated in conservative red states.
On multiple levels, Tuesday's election results raised questions about the Christian right's agenda on American politics, eight years after the movement helped sweep President George W. Bush into a second term and opened the era of state bans on same-sex marriage.
"For the first time tonight, same-sex marriage has been passed by popular vote in Maine and Maryland," said Robert P. Jones, a Washington-based pollster who specializes in questions about politics and religion.
"The historic nature of these results are hard to overstate," Jones said. "Given the strong support of younger Americans for same-sex marriage, it is unlikely this issue will reappear as a major national wedge issue."
Your Take: Should churches be polling places?
Some conservative evangelical leaders echoed that line. Albert Mohler, who heads the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said on Twitter that votes for same-sex marriage suggested that "we are witnessing a fundamental moral realignment of the country."
A Tuesday ballot measure to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state is still pending. In Minnesota, voters rejected a Tuesday measure that would have banned same-sex marriage there.
Thirty-eight states have banned same-sex marriage, mostly via constitutional amendments.
Obama's victory also raised questions about the Christian right's influence in the electorate.
Though evangelical leaders as diverse as the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land and Christian icon Billy Graham voiced support for Mitt Romney (Graham stopped short of an official endorsement), Obama performed better among white evangelicals than he did in 2008 in some states.
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In swing state Ohio, exit polls showed that Obama got 30% support among white evangelicals. While that's hardly a victory, it's better than the 27% support Obama got among those voters four years ago.
Before the election, many evangelical leaders predicted that opposition to Obama over his support for abortion rights, his personal endorsement of same-sex marriage and his vision of government as a force for good would trump reservations evangelicals had about Romney's past social liberalism and his Mormon faith.
"There is no evidence in voting patterns that President Obama's 'evolution' on same-sex marriage cost him anything," Mohler said in another tweet Tuesday night.
Obama also narrowly won Catholics, even after the U.S. Catholic bishops waged a rigorous campaign against the Obama administration around the issue of religious liberty. The bishops alleged Obama was forcing Catholics to violate their own teachings by making health insurance companies provide free contraception coverage for virtually all employees.
CNN's Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
John Green, a religion and politics expert at the University of Akron, said Obama's win among Catholics was partly a testament to the growing Latino demographic.
"Maybe Hispanic Catholics were not as moved by religious liberty-type arguments as by immigration and economics," he said.
Unlike in 2004, when John Kerry - a former altar boy - lost Catholic voters, the Obama campaign had a robust religious outreach program aimed largely at Catholic and evangelical voters. The effort included videos from Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, talking about their Christian faith.
Obama's success among some religious demographics also illustrated how economic issues, as opposed to culture war concerns, dominated the election cycle.
The defeat Tuesday of two Republican Senate candidates who made national headlines with anti-abortion remarks also raised questions about the Christian right's power.
In Missouri, U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, who in August walked back his remark that "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," lost his bid to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat.
Akin's campaign became a national cause for conservative Christian activists after the Republican Party abandoned the candidate and encouraged him to drop out over his abortion remark.
In Indiana, Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock lost his race against Democrat Joe Donnelly after saying last month that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen."
Conservative Christians did claim some victories Tuesday night, including helping the GOP retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and helping elect tea party favorite Ted Cruz as a U.S. senator from Texas.
Ralph Reed, the leader of conservative group the Faith & Freedom Coalition, planned a Wednesday morning press conference to release his data about what he called the enduring influence of "values voters."
"Preliminary evidence is they turned out and they voted heavily for Romney," Reed said in an e-mail message Tuesday night.
soundoff (4,434 Responses)
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.


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Boo on the Loose
By: Gail Herman
Boys and girls ages 4-6 will scare themselves silly with this Step 2 featuring the adventures of Sulley and his one-eyed friend Mike from the computer-animated Disney/Pixar blockbuster Monsters, Inc.
- Copyright:
- 2012 Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Pixar.
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- 9780385383509
- Publisher:
- Random House Children's Books
- Date of Addition:
- Language:
- English
- Categories:
- Children's Books, Literature and Fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy,
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.
Choosing a Book Format
EPUB is the standard publishing format used by many e-book readers including iBooks, Easy Reader, VoiceDream Reader, etc. This is the most popular and widely used format.
DAISY format is used by GoRead, Read2Go and most Kurzweil devices.
Audio (MP3) format is used by audio only devices, such as iPod.
Braille format is used by Braille output devices.
DAISY Audio format works on DAISY compatible players such as Victor Reader Stream.
Accessible Word format can be unzipped and opened in any tool that supports .docx files.

subset: commoncrawl


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Anderson Cooper can relate to this: Brad Pitt gets a massive case of the giggles on the job and lands on our RidicuList.
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: The RidicuList
Why would you want to "live that down"?? That giggle fit always cheers me up. And the CoopPit Giggle Bash is FUN! Thanks for letting us laugh along.
I don't know but doesn't this happen to us all at some time or another?
Uhhh...I think that was the point. LOL
This is too funny! We just watched "Moneyball" and while watching the special features, I even said to my husband..."Hey Brad's laugh reminds me of Anderson Cooper!" Love them both! You guys are adorable. 🙂
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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Click Here to request a confidential interview with a local branch manager in your area.


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Bi-weekly Mortgage Calculation
How much would your loan cost if you made payments every two weeks?CALCULATE
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You supply your income information and we calculate how much you can afford.CALCULATE
Mortgage Calculator
Find out how much that new home will cost!CALCULATE
Mortgage Payment Table Calculator
See how much a home loan will cost with varying interest rates and payments on the same chart!CALCULATE
Mortgage Qualification Calculator
See what lenders expect your minimum annual income to be in order to afford your next home.CALCULATE
Prepayment Mortgage Reduction
This form allows you to see how prepaying your mortgage reduces the length of your mortgage by putting in the current values for your loan.CALCULATE
Tuition Savings Calculator
See how much you need to contribute each year in order to put your children through college.CALCULATE
APR/Front End Cost Calculator
Calculates the upfront costs of the loan.CALCULATE
APR/Front End Cost Calculator
You give the upfront costs and it finds the actual Annual Percentage Rate.CALCULATE
Compound Interest Rate Calculation
This calculator simply takes the final amount you want to earn given an initial investment for a duration of time, and finds the required annual yield you would need to achieve that goal.CALCULATE
Deferred Payment Calculator
What will your monthly payment be if you defer a loan?CALCULATE
Future Value/Annuity Calculation
How much money do you need to save now to have what you want when you retire?CALCULATE
How Long Will It Last? - Loan Calculator
Here is a new twist on the mortgage calculator. Here you tell how much you want to spend each month, an interest rate and a loan amount, and the computer tells you how long it will take you to pay it off!CALCULATE
How Much to Retire
Here is a new simple retirement calculator. It tells how much you will need to provide a certain income for a set number of years.CALCULATE
Loan Payment Calculator
Enter the values and we will tell you the payment. The loan can be a mortgage, car loan, or any other simple interest amortization over a fixed time with fixed monthly payments.CALCULATE
Nominal and Effective Interest Rates
Calculate what rates are necessary to achieve a desired future value amount given a present value amount and the time period over which to compound your investment.CALCULATE
Prepayment vs. Investment -- A Scenario
This form allows you to compare what would happen if you took one of two choices with some extra cash you have -- prepaying your mortgage each month, or investing it instead.CALCULATE
Savings Calculator
This doesn't deal with inflation, taxes or any of that complicated stuff. This is just a simple calculator that lets you start with an amount of money and make regular monthly deposits, and see how much it grows.CALCULATE
Rent vs. Own
Determine whether it is financially better to purchase a home or rent.CALCULATE


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SANTA MARIA, Brazil — Penny-pinching by a band known for its onstage pyrotechnic displays may have cost more than 230 people their lives at a nightclub in southern Brazil, according to a state police inspector leading the investigation into this weekend's deadly blaze.
Inspector Marcelo Arigony told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that members of the band knowingly purchased flares meant for outdoor use because they cost a mere $1.25 a piece, compared with the $35 price tag for an indoor flare.
"The flare lit was for outdoor use only, and the people who lit them know that," said Arigony. "They chose to buy those because they were cheaper than those that can be used indoors."
The repercussions of that choice continued to send shock waves through Santa Maria, a college town of 260,000 people that's been stunned by the early Sunday morning tragedy in the Kiss nightclub.
The Rio Grande do Sul state forensics department raised the death toll Tuesday from 231 to 234 to account for three victims who did not appear on the original list of the dead. Authorities say more than 120 people remain hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns, with dozens of them in critical condition.
The blaze began at around 2:30 am local time, during a performance by Gurizada Fandangueira, a country music band that had made the use of pyrotechnics a trademark of their shows.
Police have said the club's ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that appeared to have ignited after it came in contact with a spark from a flare lit during the performance.
After the fire extinguisher malfunctioned, the blaze spread throughout the packed club at lightning speed, emitting a thick, toxic smoke. Because Kiss apparently had neither an alarm nor a sprinkler system and only one working exit, the crowd was left to search desperately for a way out.
About 50 of the victims were found in the club's two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
Police investigator Arigony said people headed to the bathrooms because the only lights in the dark club were coming from there, and the patrons mistook them for exits.
"There were diverse irregularities," he said. "Any child could have seen that this establishment should not have been open."
Outraged locals marched through Santa Maria Tuesday to demand justice for the dead, an unusual move in a country where public protests are rare. The demonstration interrupted the police news conference, even as Arigony pledged to investigate everyone involved in the tragedy — including the authorities charged with making sure such establishments are up to code, such as firefighters and city officials.
The fire inspired nationwide action, and several mayors said they would crack down on nightclubs and other venues in their cities.
The government of the country's biggest city, Sao Paulo, promised tougher security regulations for nightclubs and other places where many people gather. Since the fire, a Rio de Janeiro consumer complaint hotline has received more than 60 calls denouncing hazardous conditions at night spots, theaters, supermarkets, schools, hospitals and shopping malls around the state. Blocked emergency exits and nonexistent fire alarms and extinguishers top the list of most common complaints.
G1, Globo television network's Internet portal, said police searched two other Santa Maria nightspots owned by Mauro Hoffmann, one of the partners of the Kiss nightclub, for evidence that could help shed light on the investigation.
Monday night's searches yielded no evidence, and the site reported computers that stored images recorded by the Kiss club's security cameras have not yet been found. G1 cites a police investigator as saying the owners have insisted the club's closed-circuit camera system hadn't worked in months.
Both have been provisionally detained, along with two of the band members, and a judge has frozen the assets of both of the club's owners, pending the investigation.
The fire appeared to mark a possible turning point for a country that has long turned a blind eye to safety and infrastructure concerns. The disaster, the worst fire of its kind in more than a decade, has also raised questions of whether Brazilian authorities are up to the task of ensuring safety in such venues as the country prepares to host next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
One of Brazil's biggest newspapers, O Globo, published an editorial Tuesday saying it was time for action.
"The tragedy in Santa Maria forces us to seriously reflect over our national culture of leniency, contempt and corruption," it said. "We must start from the principle that the mea culpa belongs to us all: public servants, owners of establishments that disregard safety regulations, and regular citizens who flout them."
Soccer legend Pele, too, urged the Brazilian government to "make safety and security a priority in this country."
"So many young people are no longer with us, they had entire lives ahead of them. I ask God to protect them and take care of their families," he wrote on Twitter.
According to state safety codes here, clubs should have one fire extinguisher every 1,500 square feet as well as multiple emergency exits. Limits on the number of people admitted are to be strictly respected. None of that appears to have happened at the Santa Maria nightclub.
Rodrigo Martins, a guitarist for the group playing that night, told Globo TV network in an interview Monday that the flames broke out minutes after the employment of a pyrotechnic machine that fans out colored sparks.
He added that the club was packed with an estimated 1,200 to 1,300 people.
"I thought I was going to die there," Martins said. "There was nothing I could do, with the fire spreading and people screaming in front."
Most of the dead were college students 18 to 21 years old, but they also included some minors. Almost all died from smoke inhalation rather than burns. The Rio Grande do Sul state health secretary, Ciro Simoni, said 84 of the injured remained were in serious condition on Tuesday.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub anywhere in the world since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.
Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja and Juliana Barbassa contributed to this report from Santa Maria, Stan Lehman contributed from Sao Paulo and Jenny Barchfield contributed from Rio de Janeiro.


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The largest open claim on a long-term care insurance policy has paid nearly $2 million in benefits, the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance reported on Tuesday.
The female policyholder has been receiving benefits for 15 years and nine months as of the end of 2012, the organization found in a study of LTC claims.
"Her claim, which now exceeds $1.8 million, started three years after she purchased a long-term care insurance policy," Jesse Slome, director for AALTCI, said in a statement. "Consider that she paid $881 yearly for the coverage with payments ending when her claim began."
The largest open policy held by a man is slightly smaller, at more than $1.3 million in paid benefits. That claim started seven years after the policy was purchased and has paid benefits for almost 10 years. His initial premium was $4,812 per year.
Slome noted the difference in premiums is not uncommon. "He likely bought a much richer policy," he told ThinkAdvisor by email. "She bought good coverage and just has been getting benefits year after year. It's just the way it works."
AALTCI found that in 2012, insurance companies paid $6.6 billion in total LTC benefits to 264,000 claimants. More than two-thirds of new claims were for people 80 or older, and nearly a quarter were started for people in their 70s. However, Slome stressed that long-term care was not strictly an age-related issue.


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Julian Benbow of the Boston Globe has an interesting story on the newest Boston Celtic: 32-year-old Stephon Marbury, a former NBA All-Star point guard who was recently released by the New York Knicks.
Marbury is considered a very talented player, but during a 13-year in which he has consistently played for losing teams, he's developed a reputation for being a "malcontent" and generally being difficult to be around.
Benbow examines whether Marbury will be viewed differently now that he has joined the World Champion Boston Celtics, which have strong leaders in Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. Will the situation change Marbury or is Marbury stuck in his ways? We excerpt the piece below.
* * *
Certain players just fit the type, according to [former Boston Celtics coach and current TV announcer Tommy] Heinsohn.
"They're usually smart guys," he said. "They've got something to prove. I think they understand that this is their shot to win a title and be a special player and reclaim their heritage to the game."
New England has been good to those kinds of players recently. Randy Moss mooned Packers fans in Green Bay, nudged a traffic officer with his car in Minneapolis, then went to a Super Bowl in his first season as a Patriot.
Corey Dillon went from Cincinnati malcontent to Super Bowl champion.
Stephon Marbury is the latest to come to Boston with baggage, and the constant question around his impending arrival was whether he'd be toxic to team chemistry.
But there's something reclaimable about Marbury, because of the situation he's walking into – a veteran locker room with a championship-tested formula – and he wouldn't be the first player to thrive with the Celtics after being labeled damaged goods.
"Every new guy that came to Boston, they wanted to make sure we kept winning," said Tom "Satch" Sanders, who won eight rings in Green. "They didn't want people to say, 'What was the reason the Celtics didn't win? It must be that new guy.' "
"They're tired of being the reason why," Heinsohn said. "Tired of being the scapegoat. They wanted to prove that they were really a terrific player. And they want to be on a winning team."
Dennis Johnson had the "problem" classification before he came to Boston. His temper torched college coaches, and Lenny Wilkens spent three years butting heads with him in Seattle. Fed up in 1980, Wilkens told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "You can't get rid of the body, but you can cut out the cancer."
The Sonics dealt Johnson to Phoenix, and three years later he ended up in Boston. K.C. Jones, the Celtics' new coach, paid Johnson's rep no mind.
"When he came, I knew he had a reputation," Jones said. "I heard things about him, that he was difficult. When he came in, I wanted to see how he played and if he did his job. When he got to the Celtics, he got out there and he played, and nothing came up because none of it showed."
Johnson won two rings in Boston.
* * *
To read the rest of the piece, click here. For a related post, see The Situation of the NBA Draft.


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Vision: Passionate educators challenge one another to propose sustainable solutions and structures for re-imagining schools and education, supporting one another to enact and refine the ideas.
Mission: To educate and push ALL community members to:
Follow @coopcatalyst or our Tumblr page or our facebook page!
Hello Cooperative Catalyst team,
We really enjoy reading your blogs! We are filmmakers who spent a year in public schools. We are currently in post production on our film. Our goal is to connect to as many other communities in education. We are creating a database so we can eventually have all this information on our website. We would love to be able to repost this blog: Schools SHOULD BE Where We Learn Democracy by Paula White. Of course, we will relink back to your site as well as credit if you give us permission. We will list where originally the blog was posted. Please visit our website and let us know: http://www.dreamwithme.org
Henri Hebert
Posted by | March 1, 2010, 3:20 pm
for a Canadian perspective
Posted by | July 21, 2011, 8:58 pm
I see that you accept guest posts on your site, however, your email address failed when I tried to send an email, I am just commenting here to either let you know or hopefully someone can email me with more information. Thanks for your time.
Posted by | January 20, 2012, 6:54 pm
Pingback: May 15, 2010-
Pingback: September 30, 2010-


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Step One:
Cut out one crown piece (7"x14" rounded, with long side on the fold), two brim pieces (3.5"x9" rounded, with short side on fold), and two brim pieces of interfacing cut the same as the brim pieces (med weight works fine). Note: The photo of interfacing shows them unfolded.
Iron your interfacing to your brim pieces
Step Three:
Stich brim, right sides together, leaving long straight edge open. Clip the corners, then turn brim right side out and iron 1/4" to 1/2" hem to the inside of the long open edge. This will to be to sandwich the gathered crown edge in before topstitching later. Note: It's a bit stiff at this point so you may have to pin the ironed hem while it cools to hold it in place.
Step Four:
Unfold crown and stich hem on the bottom (neck hem). If you want to put a neck piece on to shade the neck, do that instead.
Step Five:
Baste the unhemmed edges of crown. Your basting should go from one end of the neck hem up and around the curve and back down to the other end of the neck hem. Pull basting so that the circumference of the crown equals the length of the brim. The photo shows how to check that measurement with both items folded in half.
Step Six:
Once you've got your basting pulled to the correct length, tie off the ends (I use slipknots) so it doesn't scoot. Note: In this photo you can see the finished neck hem from Step Four.
Step Seven:
Pin brim to crown, sandwiching the gathered crown edge between your ironed brim hem. You will use lots of pins to hold it in place. It should look something like this when you're done...
Step Eight:
Sew along the brim where it meets the crown. Not too close or you'll lose the brim piece underneath in places. I stitch from the top because that's the part you'll see when you're done.
Step Nine:
Add strings for tying. These can be fabric, ribbon, or whatever works for you. I handstitched some grosgrain ribbon on this one because it's faster than the machine work. It turned out like this:
Plus, I don't know if you can see it in that photo, but I added some elastic in the back of the neck so it wasn't so gappy, like this:
Well, that's it. How did I do? Did I miss anything or explain something poorly? It sure was easy to make, and now my other daughter is clamoring for her own, so I should go start on that one.


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Preparation Strategy & Study Plans
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Is Jesse Jackson Jr. headed for the pokey?
Pat Cunningham
If Jesse Jackson Jr. genuinely suffers from bipolar disorder, as has been reported, he deserves our sympathy. Mental illness is not a moral failing.
On the other hand, I'm not going to feel sorry for Jackson if he ends up in the slammer for stuff like THIS:
Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged today with violating federal law by misusing campaign funds.
Jackson, 47, a Democrat from Chicago, faces felony charges, including conspiracy, in a criminal information filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Typically, federal prosecutors use an information to charge defendants ...


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November 1st, 2012
My Take: Billy Graham and Ralph Reed are putting politics before God
Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN
(CNN)–Why are evangelicals like Billy Graham and Ralph Reed stumping for Mitt Romney? And why are roughly three-quarters of white evangelicals inclined to vote for him?
Because politics matters more to them than religion.
Last year, in a talk at a conference on Mormonism and Islam at Utah Valley University, I asked my Mormon listeners why they had not rushed to the defense of Muslims in controversies such as the one that raged over the Park51 project near ground zero. After all, they have been the victims of religious prejudice. Their founder, Joseph Smith, was killed by a mob of vigilantes.
Given this history, I expected that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, would feel the sting of anti-Muslim prejudice and speak out against it. But neither Mitt Romney of the GOP nor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the Democratic Party did anything of the sort. In fact, Romney issued a statement opposing the construction of the Islamic center.
Why? Because they were thinking and acting as Republicans or Democrats first and Mormons second.
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I see a parallel story playing out this election season with the religious right.
Until quite recently, many evangelicals saw Mormonism as a dangerous cult spreading false theology and dooming its followers to hell. In fact, only after Romney showed up for a meet and greet with Billy Graham in North Carolina earlier this month did the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association erase a reference to Mormonism as a "cult."
Did Mormons all of a sudden change their theology? Did Graham change his definition of a "cult"? Of course not. It just became politically expedient for Graham to declassify Mormonism, given the fact that Romney, a Mormon, was the presidential nominee of his beloved GOP.
Ralph Reed, too, is forsaking his theology for his politics, mobilizing his Atlanta-based Faith and Freedom Coalition to place voter guides in Ohio churches in the run-up to election day.
I am old enough to remember when the main purpose of Reed's Christian Coalition and other groups on the religious right was to put born-again Christians in the Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. And for decades those who were running those groups saw Mormons as non-Christians.
And don't get me started on Mike Huckabee, who in a recent ad says that a vote for Obama is a vote for your own damnation.
Have LDS Church members repudiated the Book of Mormon as "another testament of Jesus Christ" or their view that the Bible is the word of God only "as far as it is correctly translated"? Have they accepted the Trinity? Rejected their teaching that there are many gods?
As Ben Witherington, Albert Mohler, and many other evangelical thinkers continue to insist: no, no, and no.
CNN's Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
I used to believe that the purpose of the religious right was to infuse American politics with Christian politicians and Christian politics. I no longer believe that. The purpose of the religious right is to use the Christian God for political purposes. Why any Christian, conservative or liberal, can say "Amen" to that is beyond me.
I am perfectly happy to see Reed stump for Romney in Ohio and Graham plump for Romney in an ad in The Wall Street Journal. Just don't tell me they are doing so as Christians. They are doing so as shills for the GOP.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Stephen Prothero.
soundoff (2,430 Responses)
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.


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Here are answers to some common queries that mothers — new and veteran — may have.Whether you're a new mom or a seasoned parenting pro, breastfeeding often comes with its fair share of questions.
How often should I breastfeed?
Frequent feedings also will help stimulate your milk production during the first few weeks. By 1 to 2 months of age, a breastfed baby will probably nurse 7-9 times a day.
Your newborn should be nursing 8-12 times per day for about the first month. If you feel like you're feeding your little one more often than a friend whose baby is formula fed, you might be. Why? Because breast milk digests easier than formula, which means it moves through your baby's digestive system faster and, therefore, your baby is hungry more often.
As newborns get older, they'll nurse less often, and may develop a more reliable schedule. Some might feed every 90 minutes, whereas others might go 2 or 3 hours between feedings.Before your milk supply is established, breastfeeding should be "on demand" (when your baby is hungry), which is generally every 1½ to 3 hours. Newborns should not go more than about 4 hours without feeding, even overnight.
Are feeding intervals counted from the time my baby starts or stops nursing?
You count the length between feedings from the time when your baby begins to nurse — rather than when he or she ends — to when your little one starts nursing again. In other words, when your doctor asks how often your baby is feeding, you can say "about every 2 hours" if your first feeding started at 6 a.m. and the next feeding was at around 8 a.m., then 10 a.m., and so on.
This means that, especially at first, you may feel like you're nursing around the clock, which is completely normal. Soon enough, you'll both be on a more routine, predictable schedule.
How can I tell when my baby's ready to eat?
It's usually recommended that moms feed a newborn whenever the baby seems hungry. But crying is a late sign of hunger. So try to feed before your baby gets so hungry that he or she gets really upset and becomes difficult to calm down.
It's also important, however, to realize that every time your baby cries it is not necessarily because of hunger. Sometimes babies just need to be cuddled or changed. Or they could be overstimulated, bored, or too hot or too cold.
Signs that babies are hungry include:
- moving their heads from side to side
- opening their mouths
- sticking out their tongues
- placing their hands and fists to their mouths
- puckering their lips as if to suck
- nuzzling again their mothers' breasts
- showing the rooting reflex (when a baby moves its mouth in the direction of something that's stroking or touching its cheek)
Watch for signs that your baby is full (slow, uninterested sucking; turning away from the breast or bottle) and stop the feeding when you see them.
How long does it take to nurse?
That depends on both you and your baby and many other factors, such as whether:
- your milk supply has come in completely
- your let-down reflex (which causes milk to flow from the nipple) is immediate or takes a few minutes into the feeding to start
- your milk flow is slow or fast
- you're positioning your baby correctly on your breast
- your baby tends to get right down to business or dawdles a bit
- your baby is sleepy or easily distracted (which can be the case in older babies, especially)
How long babies nurse also depends on their age. As babies get older, they become more efficient, so they may take about 5-10 minutes on each side, whereas newborns may feed for up to 20 minutes on each breast.
Make sure your baby is latched on correctly from the beginning to ensure the most productive feeding possible. It's important that your baby nurses with a wide-open mouth and takes as much as possible of your areola in his or her mouth (not just the tip of the nipple).
But be sure to call your doctor if you're concerned about the length of your baby's feedings — whether they seem too short or too long.
How often should I alternate breasts?
To keep up your milk supply in both breasts — and prevent painful engorgement in one — it's important to alternate breasts and try to give each one the same amount of nursing time throughout the day. Again, that amount of time differs for every baby and every woman — some babies may be satisfied after 5 minutes on each breast, others may need 10 or 15 minutes on each side.
Some experts recommend switching breasts in the middle of each feeding and alternating which breast you offer first for each feeding. Can't remember on which breast your baby last nursed? Some women find it helpful to attach a subtle reminder — a safety pin or small ribbon — to their bra straps indicating which breast they last nursed on so they'll know to start with that breast at the next feeding. Or, keep a notebook handy to keep track of how your baby feeds.
Your baby may seem to prefer both breasts with each feeding and may be doing well. Or, your little one may like to nurse on just one breast with each feeding. Whichever way you choose, it's important for you to do whatever works and is the most comfortable for you and your baby.
How often should I burp my baby during feedings?
Let your baby breastfeed at one breast then switch to the other side. Try burping your baby when switching breasts and at the end of the feed. Often, the movement alone can be enough to cause a baby to burp.
As your milk comes in and your baby has established good latch-on, you can try burping as often as you think helps your baby. Some infants need more burping, others less, and it can vary from feeding to feeding depending on what the mother has been eating.
If your baby spits up a lot, you may need to try burping more frequently. While it's normal for infants to "spit up" a small amount after eating or during burping, a baby should not vomit after feeding. Vomiting after every feeding may be a problem that needs medical attention. If you have concerns that your baby is spitting up too much, call your doctor.
How can I tell if my baby's eating enough?
New mothers, especially breastfeeding moms, are often concerned that their infants may not be getting enough to eat. You can be assured that your baby is getting enough to eat if he or she:
- seems satisfied and content after eating
- produces about 4-6 wet diapers a day
- has regular bowel movements
- sleeps well
- is alert when awake
- is gaining weight
Your baby may not be getting enough to eat if he or she:
- does not appear to be satisfied after feeding
- seems hungry often
- isn't making several wet and soiled diapers a day
- is fussy or cries a lot
- isn't gaining weight
If you're concerned that your baby isn't getting enough to eat, call your doctor. Breastfed infants should also be seen by their doctor 24 to 48 hours after a mother and newborn leave the hospital. During this visit, the baby will be weighed and examined, and the mother's breastfeeding technique can be evaluated. It's also an opportunity for nursing mothers to ask questions.
Even if a breastfed baby is doing well, the doctor probably will schedule another visit for when the baby is around 2 weeks old. These postnatal checkups can help you be sure that your baby is gaining weight and getting enough nutrients.
For your own peace of mind, it can help to keep a notebook or first-week breastfeeding log to write down each time your baby feeds, how long the baby fed on each breast, and each time the baby stools (poops) or makes a wet diaper.
If you're concerned or notice any signs that your infant isn't getting enough nutrients, call your baby's doctor.
What should my newborn's diapers look like?
Your baby's diapers are excellent indicators of whether your breastfed baby is getting what he or she needs. Because colostrum (the first milk your newborn gets) is concentrated, your baby may have only one or two wet diapers in the first 24 hours.
Your newborn's stools (or poop) will be thick and tarry at first and become more greenish-yellow as your milk comes in, which is usually about 3 or 4 days after birth. The more your baby nurses, the more dirty (or "soiled") diapers he or she will have; but it may be just one a day in the first days after birth.
After 3 to 4 days, here are some signs you should look for:
- six or more wet diapers per day, with clear or very pale urine. Fewer diapers or darker urine may mean your baby's not getting enough to drink. If you see orange crystals in a wet diaper, contact your baby's doctor. They're common in healthy, well-fed babies and usually not a cause for concern, but sometimes can be a sign that a baby isn't getting enough fluids.
- four or more yellow, seedy bowel movements per day, usually one after each feeding. After about a month, though, breastfed babies usually have fewer bowel movements and many may go a few days without pooping.
My baby wants to nurse for comfort. Is this OK?
If your baby seems to be getting enough milk, but continues to suck longer than usual, he or she might be nursing for comfort rather than for nourishment. So, how do you know? Once your baby has fed vigorously, he or she may stay on your breast but show these signs of non-nutritive sucking:
- seems satisfied
- moves the jaws but stops sucking and swallowing
- plays with your nipple
Early on, it's OK to let your baby nurse for comfort, but it can become a problem as your little one gets older because he or she may need to nurse to take a nap or go to bed at night. So, at some point you may want to wean your baby off of sucking for comfort and make breastfeeding sessions only about nourishment.
Instead of nursing, you might offer your baby his or her thumb or hand to suck on. You also could give your little one a pacifier if your child doesn't seem to be hungry. Because pacifiers are associated with a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), experts now recommend letting babies go to sleep with a pacifier. But only do this after breastfeeding is well established (usually after 1 month).
If possible, also hold off on introducing a bottle until breastfeeding is well established. Some babies have "nipple confusion," though the likelihood of this happening is much less after 4 to 6 weeks.
My baby is hungrier than usual. Is this normal?
As babies gain weight, they should begin to eat more at each feeding and go longer between feedings. Still, there may be times when your little one seems hungrier than usual.
Your baby may be going through a period of rapid growth (called a growth spurt). These can happen at any time, but in the early months growth spurts often occur at around:
- 7 to 14 days old
- 2 months
- 4 months
- 6 months
During these times and whenever your baby seems especially hungry, follow his or her hunger cues. You may need to temporarily increase the frequency of feedings.


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February 3rd, 2014
Sugar not only makes you fat, it may make you sick
In recent years, sugar - more so than fat - has been receiving the bulk of the blame for our deteriorating health.
Most of us know we consume more sugar than we should. Let's be honest, it's hard not to.
The (new) bad news is that sugar does more damage to our bodies than we originally thought. It was once considered to be just another marker for an unhealthy diet and obesity. Now sugar is considered an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, as well as many other chronic diseases, according a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
"Sugar has adverse health effects above any purported role as 'empty calories' promoting obesity," writes Laura Schmidt, a professor of health policy in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, in an accompanying editorial. "Too much sugar doesn't just make us fat; it can also make us sick."
But how much is too much? Turns out not nearly as much as you may think. As a few doctors and scientists have been screaming for a while now, a little bit of sugar goes a long way.
Added sugars, according to most experts, are far more harmful to our bodies than naturally-occurring sugars. We're talking about the sugars used in processed or prepared foods like sugar-sweetened beverages, grain-based desserts, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, candy, ready-to-eat cereal and yeast breads. Your fruits and (natural) fruit juices are safe.
Recommendations for your daily allotment of added sugar vary widely:
- The Institute of Medicine recommends that added sugars make up less than 25% of your total calories
The U.S. government hasn't issued a dietary limit for added sugars, like it has for calories, fats, sodium, etc. Furthermore, sugar is classified by the Food and Drug administration as "generally safe," which allows manufacturers to add unlimited amounts to any food.
"There is a difference between setting the limit for nutrients or other substances in food and setting limits for what people should be consuming," an FDA spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "FDA does not set limits for what people should be eating."
"With regard to setting a regulatory limit for added sugar in food, FDA would carefully consider scientific evidence in determining whether regulatory limits are needed, as it would for other substances in food."
There is some good news. While the mean percentage of calories consumed from added sugars increased from 15.7% in 1988-1994 to 16.8% in 1999-2004, it actually decreased to 14.9% between 2005 and 2010. But most adults still consumed 10% or more of their calories from added sugar and about 1 in 10 people consumed 25% or more of their calories from sugar during the same time period.
Participants in the study who consumed approximately 17 to 21% of their calories from added sugar had a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, compared with those who consumed approximately 8% of calories from added sugar, the study authors concluded.
"This relative risk was more than double for those who consumed 21% or more of calories from added sugar," they wrote.
The Sugar Association said in a statement there "are a number of major flaws with this new study and the sensationalism associated with targeting sugar is fueling the media." The authors conclude that "an observational study like theirs is not proof of cause and effect," the association noted, and "extensive knowledge gaps exist."
"Bottom line: All-natural sugar has been consumed safely for centuries, and when consumed in moderation, has been and should continue to be part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle," the statement said.
Schmidt writes in the study that these new findings "provide physicians and consumers with actionable guidance. Until federal guidelines are forthcoming, physicians may want to caution patients that, to support cardiovascular health, it's safest to consume less than 15% of their daily calories from added sugar."
That's the equivalent, Schmidt points out, of drinking one 20-ounce Mountain Dew soda in a 2,000-calorie diet.
"From there, the risk rises exponentially as a function of increased sugar intake," she writes.
In a statement, the American Beverage Association said the study "shows that adult consumption of added sugars has actually declined, as recently reported by the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
"A significant part of that reduction is from decreased added sugars from beverages due, in part, to our member companies' ongoing innovation in providing more low- and no-calorie options. Furthermore, this is an observational study which cannot - and does not - show that cardiovascular disease is caused by drinking sugar-sweetened beverages."
Despite our changing scientific understanding and a growing body of evidence on sugar overconsumption as an independent risk factor in chronic disease, sugar regulation remains an uphill battle in the United States. This is contrasted by the increased frequency of regulation abroad, where 15 countries now have taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.
"'Sin taxes,' whether on tobacco, alcohol, or sugar-laden products, are popular because they are easy to enforce and generate revenue, with a well-documented evidence base supporting their effectiveness for lowering consumption," writes Schmidt.
But forget about the short-term monetary cost. Before you reach for that next sugary treat, think long and hard about the long-term cost to your health.
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Today's News: Our Take - Parks and Recreation Nabs Newt Gingrich as Latest Political Guest Star
Following in the footsteps of Joe Biden and John McCain, Newt Gingrich is the latest politician to appear on NBC's Parks and Recreation.
The Indy Star reports that the former speaker of the House happened upon production of Parks and Rec at St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis on Monday when he tried to get lunch.
Final Season Report Cards: How are 30 Rock, The Office and other soon-to-be departed series faring?
Quick on his feet, series co-creator Mike Schur immediately talked to the writer and director about incorporating Gingrich into the upcoming episode. "It was a completely random chance," Schur said. "But you can't pass up on an opportunity like that."
We don't know who will be happier in the episode: Leslie Knope, at meeting yet another A-list politician, or Ron Swanson, simply for being surrounded by glorious steak.
View original Parks and Recreation Nabs Newt Gingrich as Latest Political Guest Star at TVGuide.com
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Chantilly Sandal
The Chantilly is a beloved design of ours, featuring looped ankle straps and a flattering asymmetrical arch adorned with chunky pearl studs for a whimsical look. It's the kind of flat sandal that Lauren Bacall would have likely paired with her satin dresses.
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The science team behind the Mars Curiosity rover has announced that some of the images it has taken reveal signs of a significant water flow at some point in the planet's past. Although there have been numerous indications of water in Mars' past, the discovery provides a unique opportunity to understand the precise environment in which the watery deposits formed.
The deposits look strikingly similar to some found on Earth, in which rounded rocks, carried by currents, settle into a stream bed and are locked into a conglomerate. The rounded shapes show that the rocks were worn by transport over long distances, while the size of the rocks is too large for them to have been brought there by wind. The flows seem to have been sizable, too. "From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Berkeley's William Dietrich in the JPL's release.
The Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed, shows signs of extensive water flows, with a channel that leads to a break in the crater rim, and a large alluvial fan within the crater itself. The size of these features suggest that the flow was either steady, or recurred repeatedly.
Since the rocks embedded in the conglomerate were carried from above the rim, examining them with some of the rover's instruments should provide some indication of the region's geology, and the deposits in which they are embedded will tell us something about the watery conditions. But the fact that they were found in more than one location already suggests that Curiosity will come across more before too long.
JPL's statement quotes Caltech's John Grotzinger as saying the deposits are probably not a good bet for finding any organic material that might be indicative of anything living in the water. But they hope to find any organic deposits that are present preserved at Mount Sharp, the largest feature in the crater. These further indications of water, Grotzinger says, are "insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."


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Saturday, July 14, 2012
Classic Art Instruction: The Crowd-sourced List
27 comments:
- John VanHouten said...
We should add Color & Light to that list!
- July 14, 2012 at 7:08 PM
- Susan said...
I agree. with Jbyrd--I'm wearing out my copy of Color and Light referring to this page and that--it's helped me. A lot.
And it's not on the list, but I found Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain helpful, years ago.
- July 14, 2012 at 7:17 PM
- AnkatsArt said...
Now I voted for "An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists by W. Ellenberger et al." but my MOST favourite and helpful book is "Die Gestalt des Menschen" by Gottfried Bammes.
To bad that there is not an english version of it (I think that it is possibly the reason that nearly nobody knows it).
They show the steps from big shapes to detailed pictures and add anatomical knowledge to it.
- July 14, 2012 at 7:30 PM
- Carlos Ranna said...
We NEED Alla Prima: Everything i know about painting, by Master Richard Schmid.
IMHO, a must read.
- July 14, 2012 at 9:00 PM
- James Gurney said...
These are great suggestions, thanks, but I had to leave out Schmid and Betty Edwards because their books aren't more than 50 years old. I know it's a bit arbitrary, but I wanted to focus on the older tomes. Bammes unfortunately didn't come up in the preliminary round of nominations.
- July 14, 2012 at 9:06 PM
- Scott said...
Its not in print, and may be, oh,, a tad racist, but Andrew Loomis'/ "Fun With a Pencil" is probably the best beginner's book to instill confidence and get peopel to draw for theri on amusement and motivation, later slipping in sound fundamentals. First published in 1937.
- July 14, 2012 at 9:30 PM
- Dash Courageous said...
No Jack Hamm?
- July 14, 2012 at 11:20 PM
How I paint a picture by Jon Witcomb. Advance painting course from Famous Artist School. This course was an extension to the Famous Artist Course but was not popular. So they stop producing the course. Norman Rockwell praised him for his beautiful work. Some guy had it on ebay but he wouldn't sell it to me as the reserve was not met. AGH! Regards Henry Fong
- July 14, 2012 at 11:38 PM
- Oona Leganovic said...
I'm also missing the Bammes on the list. I do read German, so I've got it easy, but I've always found even just his (tons of) illustrations much more concise and illuminating than any other anatomy book I've looked into, including Loomis and Bridgeman.
- July 15, 2012 at 2:45 AM
- Oona Leganovic said...
Also, Robert Henri, 'The Art Spirit'. I sometimes feel like Hawthorne, Nicolaides and Henri are in a very lively dialogue, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, thus forcing you to think for yourself, but always interesting and enlightening.
- July 15, 2012 at 2:47 AM
- Ken said...
I like how loomis organizes drawing into "the five C's and the five P's" in his book
Successful Drawing. So i voted for that.
I find bridgeman, vanderpool and Speed hard to get into compared to loomis. Bridgemans drawings are quite abstract so it's hard to make out what is going on, as for vanderpool and speed i think thier writing style is little old fashioned.
What do bridgeman, vanderpool and Speed ofer that Loomis doesn't? I'd like to be convinced to give them another try!
- July 15, 2012 at 4:15 AM
- Ken said...
By the way loomis seems to be winning the poll! 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
- July 15, 2012 at 4:21 AM
Mr Gurney, would you know of any good (older or newer) books on the technique of watercolor painting? In particular, how to handle the medium?
- July 15, 2012 at 3:31 PM
Hard to join in here for me: too many of the suggested books (more than 50 years old) unknown to me.
But from a historical point of view I'm just wondering:
When was the first art instruction book ever published and printed?
- July 15, 2012 at 4:00 PM
- James Gurney said...
Rich--There were several treatises on perspective and paint chemistry in the Renaissance, and there's Leonardo. In the early 1800s, romantic tourism encouraged a spate of books for artists, including those by Ruskin, Durand, and Harding.
Iliya, if you like controlled realism, I'd recommend Arthur Guptill's "Color in Sketching and Rendering."
Ken, I like Bridgman for solid, muscular form, and Vanderpoel for tonal thinking and grace. Though Loomis deserves his first place position.
Oona, thanks for mentioning Henri. His book is a fire-up.
Dash, I only left out Hamm because no one nominated him, but I recommend his books on figure and animal drawing--lots of practical tips.
Anon, I've got most of those FAC master courses in photocopy form, and I agree, they're wonderful because they allow each instructor to unfold his own approach.
- July 15, 2012 at 5:19 PM
- Chris said...
For those mentioning Gottfried Bammes - is this the book now in English??? The reviewers suggest it maybe.
- July 16, 2012 at 12:00 AM
- Dash Courageous said...
Ah, excellent. His book on landscape composition is a treasure.
- July 16, 2012 at 12:33 AM
How about re printing your book on sketching, I think it would be very popular today
- July 16, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Tone and Colour in Landscape Painting by F. Merlin Haines- out of print, but a treasure trove of information.
- July 16, 2012 at 9:23 AM
- Unknown said...
you're missing: http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819 Figure Drawing Design and Invention by Michael Hampton and the greatest book ever: Die Gestalt des Menschen by Gottfried Bammes, which is the greatest life drawing book that has ever been printed.
- July 16, 2012 at 11:13 AM
- JonInFrance said...
"you're missing: http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819 Figure Drawing Design and Invention by Michael Hampton"
I second that - for the second time!
- July 16, 2012 at 12:31 PM
- James Gurney said...
Jon and Blake, thanks for mentioning those books, which are great. Please remember this list can't be totally comprehensive. Hampton's book isn't included because it's too recent (I'm looking for classic books older than 50 years), and I don't believe Bammes was nominated by the commentators on the first round. We can do other lists in the future.
- July 16, 2012 at 12:39 PM
- Steph said...
Walt Stanchfield is the man when it comes to essence and storytelling in figure drawing!!
- July 16, 2012 at 8:20 PM
- JonInFrance said...
Yeah, I know it can't be in the list, Jim, I just wanted to say Hampton is great - I mean, I've ordered the Bammes seeing as people above say it's worth it.
I've looked up some in the list on Amazon - the Fawcett looks good - the problem is the list is long and I have the feeling many of the books are somewhat unfamiliar - we're all voting for Loomis because not only is it good, but his books are the ones we all know!
- July 17, 2012 at 3:51 AM
- Rachel M. Brenner-Manis said...
Could we make a contemporary list...I own none of these, except the ebook versions of Loomis and Bridgeman.
I'm deprived of more art books.
- July 31, 2012 at 6:52 PM
- Tim Schneider said...
In many of the books I have read on classical technique, I have come across conflicting instructions.
1) the idea of making a detailed cartoon which is transferred onto the canvas and sealed beneath a layer of varnish or glaze
2) the idea that painting should be begun with the biggest brushes possible, blocking in large areas first, and avoiding detail & small brushes until the very end
I have had a hard time in reconciling these two ideas, because if you have a detailed sketch, but then block in the big shapes over it, you lose all of the drawing you had done in preparation.
Of course, we can always take a photo of the cartoon before we paint over it (as I have often done), but it still means that we have to re-do everything besides those major forms.
...or is that the whole point? to do your "homework" and lay things out in the sketch, and then allow the paint to find its own way as you layer it on?
Your opinion will be most welsome
- October 9, 2012 at 10:09 PM
- James Gurney said...
Tim, good questions. A couple thoughts:
1. You can do the rough block-in just transparently enough to be able to see the drawing underneath. That's one of the reasons guys like Cornwell reinforced the drawing in India ink.
2. It's OK to obliterate parts of the drawing, especially if you can keep a separate copy. You can find them again.
3. The "cartoon" doesn't have to be too laborious. It's a map, not a rendering. It's the placement and major shapes that matter. You can find the small details in the paint.
4. Plenty of painters do all their construction in the paint and never do a detailed prelim drawing. It can work that way, too. That's how I do all my plein air landscape painting.
- October 10, 2012 at 9:04 AM


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Leaked photos of what has apparently been confirmed as the LG Nexus have cropped up in an online forum. The photos were confirmed by a source at Android and Me and show a device that looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the last Google device to hit the Android market.
From the looks of it, the phone will have a black bezel with a glittery backside and what appears to be aluminum lining. It's also interesting to note that the spy shots look similar to the mock-ups provided by LG, though it's currently unclear if this is the same design that the non-Google branded LG Optimus G will sport. There have been other shots making the rounds that depict a more rectangular phone from LG with an all-black backside.
Also, it appears that the photos show the handset running Android 4.1 JellyBean, which conflicts with rumors that it will be announced as Google's flagship Android 4.2 phone at the as-of-yet-unannounced November event.
As we reported, the LG Nexus will feature the same specifications as the LG Optimus G, including a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and a 1280×768 4.7" IPS display.


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text: WASHINGTON (AP) – Singer Chris Brown was close to resolving his assault case in a deal that would have kept him out of jail, but talks fell apart Wednesday when attorneys couldn't agree on what Brown would acknowledge happened during a scuffle that led to his arrest. Brown was arrested in October and charged with misdemeanor assault after a man accused the singer of hitting him when he tried to get in a photograph Brown was taking with two women outside a Washington hotel. At the time, Brown was on probation in California for a 2009 attack on singer Rihanna, his then girlfriend. Prosecutor Kevin Chambers said in court that Brown rejected a deal to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and receive a sentence of time served. Brown spent the night in jail in Washington after his arrest and also served time in California after acknowledging he violated probation by committing a crime in Washington. He was released from jail in early June. The Grammy-winning artist has had several flare-ups since the attack on Rihanna, including being accused of breaking a window after a 2011 "Good Morning America" interview and being involved in a fistfight with singer Frank Ocean's entourage, but none of them have led to charges. He also went to rehab for anger management, but was kicked out. In the Washington case, the singer's attorney, Mark Geragos, said defense lawyers and prosecutors couldn't agree on a statement of facts about what happened outside the W hotel. "They wanted him to read from a script that wasn't true," Geragos said after the hearing. Asked what disagreement was over, Geragos declined to say. The attorneys had been in talks until hours before the hearing, but could not resolve the issue. A trial for Brown was scheduled for Sept. 8. It is expected to take a day and a half. "If they want a trial, that's what they'll get," Geragos said outside court where fans mobbed Brown, screaming and taking photographs of the singer. Also in court was Brown's bodyguard, Christopher Hollosy, who was charged in the same Washington scuffle. Hollosy was accused of being the second person after Brown to strike Parker Adams, the man who said Brown became agitated after Adams tried to take a selfie with Brown and two women Adams was with. Hollosy was convicted of misdemeanor assault in April but has not yet been sentenced. Hollosy's attorney, Bernard Grimm, was granted more time to ask for a new trial after he said there was potential new evidence in the case. He did not say publicly what it was. Brown's lawyers have said they want Hollosy to testify at Brown's trial. He's expected to say that he, not Brown, struck Adams.


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Morning Minutes: Dec. 25
Word of the Day
wassail \WAH-sul; wah-SAYL\ (noun) 1. An expression of good wishes on a festive occasion, especially in drinking to someone. 2. An occasion on which such good wishes are expressed in drinking; a drinking bout; a carouse. 3. The liquor used for a wassail; especially, a beverage formerly much used in England at Christmas and other festivals, made of ale (or wine) flavored with spices, sugar, toast, roasted apples, etc. (adjective) Of or pertaining to wassail, or to a wassail; convivial; as, a wassail bowl. (transitive verb) To drink to the health of; a toast. (intransitive verb) To drink a wassail. — www.dictionary.com
Website of the Day
Bake some holiday magic with your parents today, kids, after you open your presents under the tree. NorthPole.com offers recipes, crafts, games and other fun to enjoy on Christmas Day.
Number to Know
7: Christmas is celebrated on Jan. 7 in some Eastern Orthodox countries, such as Russia.
This Day in History
Dec. 25, 1826: The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
Today's Featured Birthday
Singer Jimmy Buffett (67)
Daily Quote
"'One can never have enough socks,' said Dumbledore. 'Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.'" ? J.K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"


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Kim Kardashian Discusses Baby Names and Weight Gain Rumors
Ever since Kim Kardashian announced her pregnancy, there have been two things on everyone's mind: what would she name the baby and how would she handle the weight gain.
Last week, reports surfaced that Kardashian and her boyfriend Kanye West were considering forgoing the Kardashian tradition of a K name in favor of North, but the reality star tells Extra that they're still undecided. "I think it would be really cute 'cause Kanye and I are both K's... but half the names on our list aren't Ks," she says. "We still have time, whatever feels right. ... Kanye being the father wants something that's unique."
Check out the craziest celebrity baby names
As for the rumors that Kardashian is struggling with her weight gain, she says that she's come to terms with her changing body. "I'm not going to lie and be like, 'Oh, it's been amazing and I've adjusted great,'" she says. "At the beginning, it was tough for me when your body changes so much... but once you kind of grasp that and embrace it... it's amazing."
Kardashian adds that she hasn't gained nearly as much weight as the tabloids report. "There are maybe two or three covers just this week that say I am 200 pounds. I'm like, 'You are 60 pounds off here.'... It wouldn't even bother me if I gained all the weight. And I have the biggest sweet tooth and I love junk food. Being pregnant, I don't like any of it," she says of her healthy eating habits. "I'm waiting for the moments when someone's like, let's go to McDonald's and Taco Bell - that's not happening for me and I'm kind of sad about it."
View original Kim Kardashian Discusses Baby Names and Weight Gain Rumors at TVGuide.com
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Life is full of Stories...Tell Yours on a Slate. Love, Life, Family, Work and Play! The journey of life allows us to experience Love and Friendships, and it takes us to new places. Our experiences through life define who we are and the people that are most important to us. Have you told them you love them, Today? Say it on a Slate, and Tell them how much they mean to you. The Slate and Tell jewelry collection is the first collection that is truly limitless in its possibilities. We have a Slate for Love, every Interest, every Religion and every language. In fact, the only limit is your imagination. Let your creativity Tell your story, It's the gift that keeps giving! There is no limit to how many you can wear, there is no limit to how many you can give, there is no limit to who you can give to, we have a Slate for every occasion. Our responsibly sourced metals and slates are hand assembled ensuring a minimal impact on the environment. We take pride that all our Jewelry is customized and stamped by hand, with care by our talented team of silversmiths and artisans.


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Artist words
A forest freak dreamingSimona D'Auria
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Warm spring light in the winter forest
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Poster: Forest jewelsBy Simona D'Auria
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Print on demand on an exclusive 230 gram thick paper. The surface is matte and the paper certified to meet environmental demands. White margins (when chosen) measure 2 cm for the 21x30 cm print, 3 cm for 30x40 cm, 4 cm for 50x70 cm and 5 cm for the largest 70x100 cm print.
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Do you want to take art to the next level? Then our exclusive, framed Fine Art Print is the obvious choice. The motif is printed on a 260 g Hahnemühle Fine Art paper and mounted with a cut, 100% acid-free mat in a quality wooden frame in black or white, with crystal clear acrylic glass. Careful choice of materials, professional craftsmanship and a high sense of quality let both the motif and your home shine.
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A clean and classsy wooden frame in black or white. The plexiglass makes it very light and unbreakable. Remember to remove the protective film on each side of the plexiglass when you mount your poster. Thickness: 16 mm.
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Our elegant silver clips are perfect for hanging our thick matte posters without damaging the paper. Order a 2-pack if you want clips only at the top of the poster, or a 4-pack if you want clips both top and bottom of the poster. The clips are 32 mm for our smaller posters and 57 mm for the bigger ones.
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Our bold wall hook is developed in Sweden and works with every type of framed art and walls used for art and photos. The unique shape provides an amazing flexibility and they can be mounted fast and easy even if the surface is really tough. All you need is a hammer and they work for every kind of frame and wall.
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The black brute stereotype (1870s – ) is one of the pictures white Americans have in their heads about black men: as savage, violent, amazingly strong and not caring about right and wrong. Black men rape and kill for no reason. They cannot control themselves. Whites do not believe that every black man is like that, but they think plenty of them are.
Willie Horton, Emmett Till and Rodney King were all seen in this light. It is why Susan Smith could blame a black man for killing her children and be believed: because black men are like that: they kill for no reason, even children!
It is why whites are afraid to walk alone in black neighbourhoods: some black man might jump out of nowhere and rape or kill them. They especially like to rape and kill complete strangers at night. It is why whites cross the street to the other side – just to be safe! As if savage killers cannot cross the street too!
When a white man kills someone, white people ask, "Why did he do it?" But when a black man kills someone they do not ask why. They already know: because he is black.
As stereotypes go, this one is pretty new: it did not arise till the 1870s, after the black slaves were freed. As slaves they were seen as simple and childlike. Once freed, they were seen as being wild and out of control.
So if blacks were not kept in line by terror and lynchings, black men would freely rape white women. What, after all, would stop them? This became the stated excuse for Jim Crow – to protect pure white women against savage black men. When Congress tried to pass a law against lynching, white Southerners blocked it in the Senate for just this reason.
As it turns out, of all the blacks who were lynched only about one in seven was guilty of raping a white woman. In the case of Emmett Till all he did was call a white woman "Baby". That was enough for her husband and her brother to kill him, a 14-year-old boy – and get away with it.
The true brutes in Jim Crow times were white men. They raped far more women, black and white – and, in the case of black women, got away with it. They were the ones who carried out the lynchings – which were far more savage and frequent than anything blacks had the power to do.
And even today blacks are three times more likely to be physically threatened, harmed or killed because of their race than are whites. So this idea of whites as peaceful and blacks as threatening to whites is not rooted in fact. It is rooted in something else.
Yes, there are black men who are violent and savage, who do unspeakable things. But there are white men like that too. In either case, they are hardly common enough to reasonably determine one's ideas about the ordinary people of either race.
See also:


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Gators remain at No. 4 in BCS standings
NEW YORK — Two years before the playoffs start in college football, the Southeastern Conference is staging a semifinal to determine who plays Notre Dame in the BCS title game.
Alabama (.9236) was second and Georgia (.8911) third in the BCS standings released Sunday. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs play Saturday in Atlanta for the SEC championship.
The winner will advance to the national championship game in Miami on Jan. 7 against the Fighting Irish (.9979), who locked up their spot Saturday with a 22-13 victory against Southern California.
"If you think about what the game means, this that and the other, it doesn't really help you win the game," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "The only thing that helps you win the game is preparation and getting your mind ready to go to battle. That's what you've got to do."
Florida (.8882) is fourth in the standings, but with no games left, looks stuck behind their SEC rivals. The good news for the Gators is they are likely to get an at-large BCS bid to the Sugar Bowl, while the SEC runner-up is out of the big games all together.
"For either one of these teams, it's not really a great scenario," Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
One way or another, the SEC will get a shot at its seventh straight BCS championship.
The Bowl Championship Series is in its second-to-last season. It will be replaced by a four-team playoff in 2014.
While the race for the BCS title game is now fairly straight forward heading into championship weekend in college football, there's some intrigue to watch for involving potential BCS busters.
Kent State is 17th in the standings and Northern Illinois is 21st. They'll meet in the Mid-American Conference championship game on Friday night in Detroit.
Because it is almost a certainty that the Big East champion — Louisville and Rutgers will determine who that is on Thursday night in New Jersey — will be ranked behind the MAC champion in the final BCS standings, if either Kent State or NIU can get into the top 16, they would receive an automatic BCS bid. The MAC has never sent a team to the BCS.
Neither Louisville nor Rutgers is in the BCS top 25 this week.
Boise State from the Mountain West is 20th in the standings and also still in the mix for that BCS buster bid if it can jump ahead of the MAC teams and into the first 16. The Broncos play Nevada on Saturday to earn a share of the MW title.
The team that could be hurt most if a BCS buster emerges is Oklahoma. The Sooners are sitting 11th in the standings with a game left against TCU. With another victory, they would seem to be in good shape to get into the BCS even if Kansas State clinches the Big 12 by beating Texas.
But that at-large spot could get gobbled up by a BCS buster.
Other BCS automatic bids will be determined this weekend in the Pac-12, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference.
UCLA plays at Stanford in the Pac-12 title game with the winner going to the Rose Bowl.
Wisconsin and Nebraska will play for the Big Ten's Rose Bowl berth.
Florida State and Georgia Tech play for the ACC title and a spot in the Orange Bowl.
Oregon is fifth in the latest standings, and like Florida, done with its regular season and in good shape to receive an at-large BCS bid.


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Oak Ridge house destroyed today; fire under investigation
A house at 148 Hillside Road was completely destroyed by fire Sunday morning and an investigation is under way.
According to Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley, both fire and police investigators have ruled the fire to be "suspicious" in nature, although he did not elaborate on the reasons.
Oak Ridge 911 dispatchers received the fire call at 4:08 a.m. Sunday, Kerley stated in an email. The house was fully engulfed in flames when the first police officer arrived at the scene.
Fire crews brought the fire under control in approximately 20 minutes, Kerley stated, but after investigating the fire and interviewing the house's owner and renters, the Fire Department chose to allow the fire to rekindle and burn down. The decision was made because of safety concerns over the house leaning and possibly collapsing onto adjacent property.
The adjacent house suffered minor damage — four windows were broke and the paint was scorched.
Owner J.R. Nine told Fire Department personnel that the house was one of his three he rents and it was insured. The renters were relocating to Knoxville at the time of the fire and had removed most of their personal property on Saturday afternoon. The electricity and gas had been turned off.
There were no injuries.
Donna Smith can be contacted at (865) 220-5502.


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Sorry to post yet another abstract, but the American Anthropological Association has come to San Francisco and I'm presenting in a fantastic panel titled, Sharing Anthropology: Theorizing Anthropological Research in the Age of Social Media. All of the rest of the presenters are anthropologists (except for Ryan Anderson, who is a sneaky former archaeologist) so I'll be one reppin' the field.
Sadly my slides aren't going to be quite as fantastic as the ones I previously posted, but what can you do? Here's my abstract:
A Digital Ecology of Sharing Archaeology
Clean. Draw. Photograph. Level. Record. Dig. Sample. Sort Artifacts. Share.
Archaeologists are increasingly recognizing the benefits of an online presence. Field school blogs and project Facebook pages have become standard outreach fare. Yet this outreach is often an afterthought, relegated to undergraduate students and rarely cultivated as a legitimate expression of archaeological research. I argue that unless digital sharing moves beyond a rarely-updated Facebook page and is integrated into all aspects of archaeological practice it will always be considered an illegitimate by-product, remaining at the fringes of our profession, a poor shadow of the potential that digital outreach has for communicating with the public. This integration involves disrupting our professional customs to re-frame our research in terms of expressive, teachable moments. Contrary to the opinion that sharing at an intimate level would compromise our research, I argue that sharing can introduce reflexivity into the archaeological process and increase multivocality among project participants. Creating a digital ecology wherein archaeological research is made available "at the trowel's edge" and rewarded as a legitimate undertaking is risky, unpredictable, and utterly necessary to usher archaeology into the digital age.


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When I went to Yorkshire to visit my drawing pal, Richard Bell, an ITV film crew showed up to profile him. They shot us as we drew together and later, they took him off for a tramp in the wild.
See me act like a New Yorker and horrify the locals while painting a snack truck.
(ITV was kind enough to send me a tape but they have not posted the show online so I am taking the liberty of sharing it here.)
(Part 1 of 2)
(Part 2 of 2)


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April 7th, 2012
The Jesus debate: Man vs. myth
By John Blake, CNN
(CNN)– Timothy Freke was flipping through an old academic book when he came across a religious image that some would call obscene.
It was a drawing of a third-century amulet depicting a naked man nailed to a cross. The man was born of a virgin, preached about being "born again" and had risen from the dead after crucifixion, Freke says.
But the name on the amulet wasn't Jesus. It was a pseudonym for Osiris-Dionysus, a pagan god in ancient Mediterranean culture. Freke says the amulet was evidence of something that sounds like sacrilege – and some would say it is: that Jesus never existed. He was a myth created by first-century Jews who modeled him after other dying and resurrected pagan gods, says Freke, author of "The Jesus Mysteries: Was the 'Original Jesus' a Pagan God?"
"If I said to you that there was no real Good Samaritan, I don't think anyone would be outraged," says Freke, one of a group of mythicists who say Jesus never existed. "It's a teaching story. What we're saying is that the Jesus story is an allegory. It's a parable of the spiritual journey."
CNN's Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
On Easter Sunday, millions of Christians worldwide mark the resurrection of Jesus. Though Christians clash over many issues, almost all agree that he existed.
But there is another view of Jesus that's been emerging, one that strikes at the heart of the Easter story. A number of authors and scholars say Jesus never existed. Such assertions could have been ignored in an earlier age. But in the age of the Internet and self-publishing, these arguments have gained enough traction that some of the world's leading New Testament scholars feel compelled to publicly take them on.
Most Jesus deniers are Internet kooks, says Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar who recently released a book devoted to the question called "Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth."
Your comments on Jesus deniers
He says Freke and others who deny Jesus' existence are conspiracy theorists trying to sell books.
"There are people out there who don't think the Holocaust happened, there wasn't a lone JFK assassin and Obama wasn't born in the U.S.," Ehrman says. "Among them are people who don't think Jesus existed."
Does it matter if Jesus existed?
Some Jesus mythicists say many New Testament scholars are intellectual snobs.
"I don't think I'm some Internet kook or Holocaust denier," says Robert Price, a former Baptist pastor who argues in "Deconstructing Jesus" that a historical Jesus probably didn't exist.
"They say I'm a bitter ex-fundamentalist. It's pathetic to see this character assassination. That's what people resort to when they don't have solid arguments."
Ehrman, for example, is an agnostic who has written books that argue that virtually half of the New Testament is forged. Another defender of Jesus' existence is John Dominic Crossan, a New Testament scholar who has been called a heretic because his books challenge some traditional Christian teachings.
But as to the existence of Jesus, Crossan says, he's "certain."
He says some Jesus deniers may be people who have a problem with Christianity.
"It's a way of responding to something you don't like," Crossan says. "We can't say that Obama doesn't exist, but we can say that he's not an American. If we're talking about Obama in the future, there are people who might not only say he wasn't American, but he didn't even exist."
Does it even matter if Jesus existed? Can't people derive inspiration from his teachings whether he actually walked the Earth?
Crossan says Jesus' existence matters in the same way that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s existence mattered.
If King never existed, people would say his ideas are lovely, but they could never work in the real world, Crossan says.
It's the same with an historical Jesus, Crossan writes in his latest book, "The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus."
"The power of Jesus' historical life challenges his followers by proving at least one human being could cooperate fully with God. And if one, why not others? If some, why not all?"
The evidence against Jesus' existence
Those who argue against Jesus' existence make some of these points:
-The uncanny parallels between pagan stories in the ancient world and the stories of Jesus.
-No credible sources outside the Bible say Jesus existed.
-The Apostle Paul never referred to a historical Jesus.
Price, author of "Deconstructing Jesus," says the first-century Western world was full of stories of a martyred hero who is called a son of God.
"There are ancient novels from that period where the hero is condemned to the cross and even crucified, but he escapes and survives it," Price says. "That looks like Jesus."
Those who argue for the existence of Jesus often cite two external biblical sources: the Jewish historian Josephus who wrote about Jesus at the end of the first century and the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote about Jesus at the start of the second century.
But some scholars say Josephus' passage was tampered with by later Christian authors. And Price says the two historians are not credible on Jesus.
"Josephus and Tacitus – they both thought Hercules was a true figure," Price says. "Both of them spoke of Hercules as a figure that existed."
Price concedes that there were plenty of mythical stories that were draped around historical figures like Caesar. But there's plenty of secular documentation to show Caesar existed.
"Everything we read about Jesus in the gospels conforms to the mythic hero," Price says. "There's nothing left over that indicates that he was a real historical figure."
Those who argue for the existence of Jesus cite another source: the testimony of the Apostle Paul and Jesus' early disciples. Paul even writes in one New Testament passage about meeting James, the brother of Jesus.
These early disciples not only believed Jesus was real but were willing to die for him. People don't die for myths, some biblical scholars say.
They will if the experience is powerful enough, says Richard Carrier, author of "Proving History."
Carrier says it's probable that Jesus never really existed and that early Christians experienced a mythic Jesus who came to them through visions and revelations.
Two of the most famous stories in the New Testament – the conversion of Paul and the stoning death of Stephen, one of the first Christian martyrs - show that people seized by religious visions are willing to die, Carrier says.
In both the Paul and Stephen stories, the writers say that they didn't see an actual Jesus but a heavenly vision of Jesus, Carrier says.
People "can have powerful religious experiences that don't correspond to reality," Carrier says.
"The perfect model is Paul himself," Carrier says. "He never met Jesus. Paul only had an encounter with this heavenly Jesus. Paul is completely converted by this religious experience, but no historical Jesus is needed for that to happen."
As for the passage where Paul says he met James, Jesus' brother, Carrier says:
"The problem with that is that all baptized Christians were considered brothers of the Lord."
The evidence for Jesus' existence
Some scholars who argue for the existence of Jesus says the New Testament mentions actual people and events that are substantiated by historical documents and archaeological discoveries.
Ehrman, author of "Did Jesus Exist?" scoffed at the notion that the ancient world was full of pagan stories about dying deities that rose again. Where's the proof? he asks.
Ehrman devoted an entire section of his book to critiquing Freke, the mythicist and author of "The Jesus Mysteries: Was the 'Original Jesus' a Pagan God?" who says there was an ancient Osiris-Dionysus figure who shares uncanny parallels to Jesus.
He says Freke can't offer any proof that an ancient Osiris figure was born on December 25, was crucified and rose again. He says Freke is citing 20th- and 19th-century writers who tossed out the same theories.
Ehrman says that when you read ancient stories about mythological figures like Hercules and Osiris, "there's nothing about them dying and rising again."
"He doesn't know much about ancient history," Ehrman says of Freke. "He's not a scholar. All he knows is what he's read in other conspiracy books."
Craig A. Evans, the author of "Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence," says the notion that Paul gave his life for a mythical Jesus is absurd.
He says the New Testament clearly shows that Paul was an early enemy of the Christian church who sought to stamp out the burgeoning Jesus movement.
"Don't you think if you were in Paul's shoes, you would have quickly discovered that there was no Jesus?" Evans asks. "If there was no Jesus, then how did the movement start?"
Evans also dismissed the notion that early Christians blended or adopted pagan myths to create their own mythical Jesus. He says the first Christians were Jews who despised everything about pagan culture.
"For a lot of Jewish people, the pagan world was disgusting," Evans says. "I can't imagine [the Gospel writer] Matthew making up a story where he is drawing parallels between Jesus' birth and pagan stories about Zeus having sex with some fair maiden."
The words of Jesus also offer proof that he actually existed, Evans says. A vivid personality practically bursts from the pages of the New Testament: He speaks in riddles, talks about camels squeezing through the eye of a needle, weeps openly and even loses his temper.
Evans says he is a man who is undeniably Jewish, a genius who understands his culture but also transcends his tradition with gem-like parables.
"Who but Jesus could tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan?" Evans says. "Where does this bolt of lightning come from? You don't get this out of an Egyptian myth."
Those who argue against the existence of Jesus say they aren't trying to destroy people's faith.
"I don't have any desire to upset people," says Freke. "I do have a passion for the truth. … I don't think rational people in the 20th century can go down a road just on blind faith."
Yet Easter was never just about rationale.
The Easter stories about the resurrection are strange: Disciples don't recognize Jesus as they meet him on the road; he tells someone not to touch him; he eats fish in another.
In the Gospel of Matthew, a resurrected Jesus suddenly appears to a group of disciples and gives them this cryptic message:
"Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
And what did they see: a person, a pagan myth or a savior?
Albert Schweitzer, a 20th-century theologian and missionary, suggested that there will never be one answer to that question. He said that looking for Jesus in history is like looking down a well: You see only your own reflection.
The "real" Jesus, Schweitzer says, will remain "a stranger and an enigma," someone who is always ahead of us.
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About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.